'Fending off sharks': Coast Guard rescues stranded Louisiana boaters who survived more than a day

The Coast Guard came to the rescue just in the nick of time Sunday, helping three Louisiana boaters who were found stranded in the Atlantic Ocean "fending off sharks" as rescuers arrived.

The Coast Guard said in a Monday statement that the boaters were on a fishing trip that went awry when their 24-foot boat sank around 10 a.m. last Saturday, leaving them stranded 25 miles off Empire, Louisiana. Family members reported them missing, but it took more than a day for the Coast Guard to find them Sunday afternoon. CNN reported that rescuers arrived after 28 hours.

All three boaters were back home Tuesday, the Coast Guard confirmed to the Associated Press.

ABC News identified the men as Phong Le, Son Nguyen and Luan Nguyen.

When the group's boat sank, it left them with no radio in an area without cellphone service. Le told ABC that they made a distress call on a radio to the Coast Guard – “and not even seconds after that, the boat was nearly halfway in the water.”

The three men said that they created a makeshift float by tying ice chests together. The sharks showed up Sunday morning, Luan Nguyen said. One bit the front of his life vest.

"And I think that’s where I caught ... these injuries on my hand," he told ABC. "I took my two thumbs and jabbed him in the eyes, and he took off."

Meanwhile, Le swam miles to search for help. He managed to find a cellphone signal, sending a screenshot of his map location to a friend just before the battery died, he told ABC.

A boater's wife texted it to the Coast Guard, Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Keefe, rescue coordinator for Sector New Orleans, told the Associated Press.

One man's wife had also reported the group missing at around 10 p.m. Saturday, Keefe said. After Coast Guard boats, planes and a helicopter spent hours searching the area, Le's location screenshot arrived.

Le was rescued first. An airplane then located the other two about a half-mile to a mile away, where they were still being circled by four black-tip sharks, Andrew Stone, a seaman in the Coast Guard rescue crew, said.

When the two were lifted into the helicopter, there was a lot of hugging, helicopter rescue swimmer Richard Hoefle said. Until then, he said, Le “had no idea if his friends were alive or dead.”

A social media post from the Coast Guard described the rescue as "just in the nick of time."

The boaters were flown to a hospital in New Orleans, the Coast Guard said. In addition to minor hand injuries, one of the boaters had hypothermia.

In South Africa: First, detailed video captures orcas hunting great white sharks

According to American Oceans, blacktip sharks are considered “unintentionally dangerous," and few human fatalities have been reported.

"We searched an area roughly the size of Rhode Island and are thankful to have found these missing boaters," Keefe said in the Monday statement.

"If the family member had not notified the Coast Guard, and if these three boaters were not wearing life jackets, this could've been a completely different outcome."

Contributing: The Associated Press. Wyatte Grantham-Philips, USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coast Guard rescues three boaters who survived a day at sea, sharks